Chraïbi was educated first in a Qurʾānic school and then in a French school in Casablanca. In 1946 he went to Paris to study chemical engineering, receiving a degree in 1950, after which he did graduate work in neuropsychiatry, only to abandon science just before receiving a doctorate.

His first novel—Le Passé simple (1954; “Simple Past”), published shortly before the outbreak of hostilities in Algeria—is a powerful, bitter, ironic cry of revolt against oppressive traditionalism. Les Boucs (1955; The Butts) shifted the author’s accusatory finger from a paternalistic Islamic formalism to the oppressed condition of many North Africans living in France. Then, leaving aside the directness of polemic, Chraïbi turned to more allegorical political expression in L’Âne (1956; “The Donkey”) and La Foule (1961; “The Crowd”); both confront the inadequacies of the newly independent Third World countries, as well as the failings of European civilization. The weaknesses of Western values appear most noticeably in Un Ami viendra vous voir (1966; “A Friend Is Coming to See You”), in which Chraïbi combines the themes of insanity, violence, and the oppression of women. Women’s rights, in Europe as in North Africa, are also touched on in Succession ouverte (1962; Heirs to the Past), a sequel to his first novel, and in La Civilisation, ma mère! (1972; Mother Comes of Age). Mort au Canada (1975; “Death in Canada”) is a study of passionate love. Other works include Une Enquête au pays (1981; Flutes of Death), La mère du printemps (1982; Mother Spring), Naissance à l’aube (1986; “Birth at Dawn”), and L’Inspecteur Ali (1991; “Inspector Ali”). The demand for freedom and justice, and a need for love, are the major themes of Chraïbi’s life’s work.